====== Chess - Programming - Checklist ======

A list of items to consider using:


===== BitBoards =====

  * Board. [done]
  * Magic Bitboards.  [done]


===== Grids =====

  * Traditional grid.  [done]


===== Move Generation =====

  * Opening Books.  
    * Own format. [done]
    * Huffman.
    * Polygot. [done]
  * Random Move Generation. [done]
  * Staged Move Generation. 
    * Some programs do not generate all moves at once, but do it in several stages (i.e. hash move first, then captures, then killer moves, then all the rest in a chunk) on the premise that if one of the early moves causes a cutoff, then we may save on the effort of generating the rest of the moves.
  * Check extensions. When the own king is in check only generate moves that can be made to avoid the check. [done]


===== Move Prioritization =====

  * Move Ordering.
  * Best Move (from hash table).
  * Captures:
    * by Most Valuable Victim (MVV)
    * by Least Valuable Attacker (LVA).
  * Pawn Promotions.
  * History Heuristic.
  * Killer Moves.


===== Move Storage =====

  * FEN.  [done]
  * PGN.  [done]
  * Own format. [done]


===== Searching =====

  * Alpha / Beta search. [done]
  * Negamax search. [done]
  * Aspiration Windows.
  * MinMax search. [done]
  * MultiPV (Single, non-PVS search).
  * Multi Threading.
    * Ponder.
  * Principal Variation Search (PVS).
  * Quiet Search (Quiescence Search). [done]
  * End-Games.
    * Common end-games (K vs KP, K vs KQ, K v KR, K v KBN).


===== Pruning =====

  * Futility Pruning.
  * Null Move Pruning.
  * Late Move Pruning (LMP).
  * Late Move Reductions (LMR).


===== Evaluations =====

  * Standard Evaluations:
    * Mate. [done]
    * Stalemate. [done]
    * Draw by 3-fold repetition.
    * Draw by insufficient material. [done]
    * 50 moves without a pawn move. [done]
    * 75 moves without a capture or pawn move. [done]
  * Material Values. [done]
    * Tapered Evaluation - Different values at different stages of the game (beginning, middle-game, end-game). [done]
  * Positional Knowledge.
    * Piece Locations:  [done]
      * Good and Bad squares. [done]
      * Relative to own pieces.
      * Relative to opponent pieces.
      * Threatened pieces.
  * Piece Mobility. [done]
  * Piece Occupancy. [done]
    * Control of Center. [done]
  * End-Games.
    * Drawing end-games.
    * End-games without Pawns.
  * Bishops.
    * On long diagonals.
  * Bishop Pair. [done]
    * In Open games.
  * Knights.
    * In Closed games.
  * Pawns.
    * Blocked.
    * Passed. [done]
    * Passed and escorted by a piece.
    * Passed and escorted by king.
    * Passed and free.
    * Passed and unstoppable.
    * Isolated pawns. [done]
    * Pawn Storms. [done]
  * King Safety.
    * Castled. [done]
    * Near a semi-open file.
    * Near squares attacked by opponent.
    * Pawn Shield. [done]


===== Speed / Strength =====

  * Nodes Per Second (Search Speed). [done]
  * Depth settings. [done]
  * Perft.  [done] 
  * Divide.  [done]


===== Time-Controls =====

  * Seconds per move. [done]
  * Moves per time-frame.
  * Bullet.
  * Blitz.
  * Rapid chess 


===== Transposition Tables =====

  * Transposition (hash) Tables.  [done]
    * Zorbrist.  [done]


===== Protocols =====

  * UCI Protocol
  * Winboard